Top match-fixing scandals in British football

Football is rightfully called the most important thing in the world, besides listening to your woman. And over the last couple of decades, the things surrounding the pitches have scaled so fast, it no longer can be considered as a sport alone. Football, in fact, is now an industry. It provides millions of jobs worldwide, it provides entertainment for billions of people across the planet, and the amount of money connected to it is measured in trillions. Naturally, where you have so much money, you have greed an corruption as well. Match-fixing has been present since gambling and betting was, and these two date back all the way to ancient times. Most of us witnessed such scandal and we decided to remind you about a few of them.

Delroy Facey, Moses Swaibu, and the unnamed businessman

In 2015, these two players have been found guilty in a match-fixing scandal. The money involved in it was nowhere near spectacular, but the fact that someone tried a scam so recently shows that there are still people ready to ruin the sanctity of the game, for both fans and the players alike. Other people involved in the scam received up to 5 years in jail for fraud and deception. Full transcripts of the conversation with younger players and offer to fix the matches were read in the court and the general public was quite outraged by the entire case.

The FA watch list

In 2013, after an investigation by a prominent newspaper in Britain, it was concluded that the Football Association has a secret watchlist of players suspected in various match-fixing scandals. And some of the names were actively playing for British clubs at the time. Officials at the time neither confirmed or denied the existence of the list, but further investigation found that there indeed was a great match-fixing conspiracy. You can find the full article on it here:

Many other newspapers conducted their own investigations and as a result, a number of people were arrested, former and active players included. The Conference South division seemed to have been riddled with these fixed matches the most, but some involved parties included high profile names from prominent clubs as well.

Claus Lundekvam

In 2012, Claus Lundekvam, a retired Southampton defender, claimed that he was actively taking part in a match-fixing scheme where together with his teammates, he would alter some aspects of the game in order to influence the outcome. He admitted making a fair bit of money and even striking agreements with the opposing captains on events such as first throw, the first corner, etc. These markets offer a good payoff and everyone involved in the scam profited from it. There was even an indication that the Champions League match between Liverpool and Debrecen in 2009 was under the Interpol’s suspicion and that some fixing was at hand during that match as well